\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\begin{document}
\newlength{\pbwidth}    \setlength{\pbwidth}{\textwidth}
\newlength{\ztwidth}    \settowidth{\ztwidth}{description}
\addtolength{\pbwidth}{-\ztwidth}
\addtolength{\pbwidth}{-12ex}
\begin{tabular}{|l|p{\pbwidth}|}
 \hline
 description & comment \\
 \hline
 article 1   & the comment on this article may be very long and is
               broken into lines in such a way, that the total width
               of the table does not exceed the width of the other
               text outside of this table. \\
 \hline
\end{tabular}
\par\noindent
The width of this table adapts automatically to \verb:\textwidth:,
which may be seen from this paragraph.
\end{document}